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Last of Boston Marathon Bombing Patients Leaves Hospital

June 03, 2013 3:41 PM

VOA News

Erika Brannock, 29, a Baltimore area pre-school teacher who lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings, is accompanied by her mother, Carol Downing (R) as she is released from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, June 3, 2013.

The last Boston Marathon bombing patient has left a hospital after 11 surgeries and the amputation of one of her legs.

Twenty-nine-year-old preschool teacher Erika Brannock was wheeled out of a Boston hospital Monday, seven weeks after twin explosions near the finish line of the race killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. Brannock said she faces a long rehabilitation.

''Next is rehab to get stronger and to get better and walk," said Brannock.

Brannock lost her left leg above the knee, one of at least 14 people who had limbs amputated in the aftermath of the blasts. She also suffered significant damage to her other leg and a hearing loss.

As she left the hospital, Brannock said she is anxious to attend the graduation Friday of her first class of young students, and to be the maid of honor in a friend's wedding the next day.

U.S. authorities have said two brothers of Chechen heritage, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, set off the explosions with homemade bombs. Tamerlan died four days after the April 15 bombing after a shootout with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured hours later and is accused of using a weapon of mass destruction, a charge that carries a possible death sentence if he is convicted.